School re-openings in other countries will be examined

The chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, has said that the National Public Health Emergency Team is looking at the experience in other European countries when it comes to easing measures around schools and childcare.

Dr Holohan said that when evaluating the impact of Covid 19, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) considers both existing research and the effect the pandemic has had on other European countries, many of which experienced the virus a few weeks ahead of Ireland.

He said some of these countries have been in a position to ease certain measures around school and childcare and that for the most part, they haven't seen significant change in infection.

This, continued Mr Holohan, is giving a degree of assurance in terms of the likely impact of measures of that kind.

The Department of Health has also published statistics relating to the mortality rate from Covid 19 in this country compared with other countries.

 The statistics show that when issues including population density - and the ways in which deaths are reported are taken into account, Ireland's experience is on the lower end of the European  scale, particularly given that Ireland reports all deaths, including probable cases of Covid 19 and deaths in all settings.